Richards, Anderson, Nobs e Wood
È morto Claude
Nobs, fondatore del Festival
Jazz di Montreux.
Nobs aveva 76 anni, ed è rimasto vittima
di una caduta sugli sci durante le vacanze di Natale: dopo più di due settimane
di coma e dopo aver subito un intervento chirurgico, si è spento la notte
scorsa all’ospedale di Losanna.
“È una grande personalità della
musica che se ne va, un uomo appassionato, e penso che sia stata proprio la sua
passione per la musica a rendere possibile questo piccolo miracolo sul lago
Lemano”, ha detto il Ministro della Cultura elvetico.
Era il 1967 quando Claude Nobs lanciò il Festival di Montreux, capace di
attrarre sin dai primi anni le più grandi star mondiali: Miles Davis, Ray
Charles, James Brown, Carlos Santana, Sting, Gilberto Gil, Ella Fitzgerald,
solo per citarne alcuni.
O BB King, con cui Nobs e la sua armonica si esibirono in anni ben più
recenti.
Dal 5 al 20 luglio si terrà la quarantasettesima edizione del festival
di Montreux, la prima senza Nobs.
Ricorda Aldo Pancotti/Wazza Kanazza:
Berna 28 maggio 1978 - Concerto
dei Jethro Tull
La voce squillante di un presentatore... “ Benvenuto Italia… Good evenin, sit back, relax and
make yourself confortamble to enjoy, an evening with… Jethro Tull... Jethro Tull…”.
A ripensarci (ero presente), ancora mi si
accappona la pelle!
Tutti avete riconosciuto l'intro di Bursting Out, il live di quel tour.
Chi parlava al microfono era Claude Nobs che… se ne andato a 76
anni; era anche il fondatore del Festival Jazz di Montreaux, e musicista.
Sit back relax, and RIP Claude!
Il
ricordo di Ian Anderson- Tribute
to Claude Nobs
It is with great sadness that I read an email
last night from the Montreux Jazz Festival staff, announcing the passing of our
old friend Claude Nobs, founder of the MJF all those years ago in 1967.
He booked Jethro Tull to appear in 1970 and
again in 2003. He was still actively involved in directing the Festival, even
last July in the 46th year of the annual event, when he announced us on stage
for our third show there and joined us the next day as a featured guest at a
public workshop performance where he played blues harmonica with me and talked
with energy and enthusiasm, as always, to the audience.
Claude had been unwell on a few occasions in the
last years and was well aware of the passing years and need to look after
himself. We would meet for dinner once in a while when we were at home in
Montreux or visit his chalet for a quiet chat.
So, to hear of the accident on Christmas Eve
which lead to his emergency surgery and subsequent coma, was a huge shock, to
say the least. He took a tumble while on his cross-country skis near his home
and was rushed to hospital by helicopter ambulance later that night. He
remained in a coma for the next two weeks but we all imagined that he would
somehow miraculously awake and bounce off back up to Caux, in the hills high above
Montreux, with the boyish energy which he retained for all the time I have
known him. But it was not to be.
The things I will always remember most about
Claude were not the public persona, not the party-throwing generous host to all
the good and great of the Rock, Jazz and pop fraternity who drifted in and out
of his life. No, It is the boundless, naive optimism of the man, the boy, the
child which infected all around him. His innate love for music, musicians,
gadgets, trains, motorcycles and - well - just stuff was the simple charm which
exuded from him.
We will miss him sorely and treasure the legacy
which he has left for Montreux, all genres of music and the millions of
concert-goers who have enjoyed the sounds echoing off the water from that
beautiful little corner of Lac Léman, Switzerland.
But, as Claude would undoubtedly say, if we
could pass him the microphone right now, “The show must go on.”
And it most certainly will.
Ian
Anderson
11th January 2013
